Best way to diable air bags?

Or you could just get one of these to cover the hole.

http://www.hicksairbagcovers.com/selector.php?id=jech

Anyone still reading this?...I read that perhaps the '95 XJ airbag is differently triggered, but my '99 just has one yellow two wire connector attached to it...why wouldn't a person just disconnect that connector and tape it up, if they simply wanted to disable the airbag? If the ultimate goal is to then ALSO "trick" the XJ's PCM into thinking that the airbag is still connected, that is another story.

15 years later. LOL




Ya still there?

Heller!?

SeanSS said:

15 years later. LOL

Ya still there?

Heller!?

Click to expand...

As long as XJ's are still running, these threads will continue to have value to some of us...no matter how old they are.
In fact, when I find an old thread and I can add helpful information to it, I do...so that future readers with that problem or concern can benefit from it.

soyjer said:

Anyone still reading this?...I read that perhaps the '95 XJ airbag is differently triggered, ...

Click to expand...

'95 and '96 are mechanically triggered.

As I understand it there is a bolt that can be backed off in the top of the steering wheel and that will disable the airbag for servicing purposes.

I worked several years in the automobile industry. Part of my job duties included testing air bag deployment for QC and maintaining air bag testing equipment.

First off, don't mess with an air bag if you don't know what your doing. Used properly they can save your life (personal experience applies here). I cringe when I see videos of kids trying to sit on one and detonate outside a vehicle. Some (Takata recall) have been known to have metal particles fly off injuring even killing some folks.

Air bags are shipped from the manufacture to assembly plant safely because they are shipped with a shunt inside the connector. This shunt bridges the two wires that activate the detonator. Yes at the core of an air bag is an explosive device. The shunt prevents unintentional detonation even from static electricity. Once the air bag is plugged into the car side harness, it becomes active.

The tester we used, tested two parameters, Continuity and insulation breakdown. Insulation breakdown won't matter if your trying to remove it from the vehicle. As far as continuity, I don't remember the exact value but it was in the milliohm scale.

If it were me, I wouldn't mess with it.

Hey, since you seem to have in-the-industry knowledge of these things, can you expand a little about what sort of lifespan/accelerated aging tests are typically done on them?

Just in the XJ population there are airbags spanning from 18-23 years old (to say nothing of other makes/models, considering airbags have been in cars since the late 80s/early 90s) - is there a point at which an airbag is just too old to do its job properly/safely?

Was the notion of airbag-equipped cars being still on the road and driven 20, 30, or more years after production even considered?

Rob Mayercik said:

Hey, since you seem to have in-the-industry knowledge of these things, can you expand a little about what sort of lifespan/accelerated aging tests are typically done on them?

Just in the XJ population there are airbags spanning from 18-23 years old (to say nothing of other makes/models, considering airbags have been in cars since the late 80s/early 90s) - is there a point at which an airbag is just too old to do its job properly/safely?

Was the notion of airbag-equipped cars being still on the road and driven 20, 30, or more years after production even considered?

Click to expand...

Great questions. I don't know. We were assembly so it had to pass tests to leave the plant. The air bag manufactures probably do the long term testing.



After several years of building thousands of seats with air bags, we had a small box of defective ABs. I was told to build an enclosure to "safely" detonate the cores one at a time. Yeah right! I had a problem with that and was told to build it anyway. Then I thought, this will be fun to prove how bad an idea that was. ...and bad it was. Turned a steel Hoffman enclosure into a ball and sent the latches through two 8 foot light fixtures embedding them into the sheet metal roof. The box was clamped down in a six inch Wilton vice. I was safely a hundred feet away in another building when I set it off. Loudest bang from an AB I ever heard. Funny how explosives work like that. Management makes great decisions with visual aids. The rest of the box was still on a shelf when I left in 05.

Greenz said:

Great questions. I don't know. We were assembly so it had to pass tests to leave the plant. The air bag manufactures probably do the long term testing.



After several years of building thousands of seats with air bags, we had a small box of defective ABs. I was told to build an enclosure to "safely" detonate the cores one at a time. Yeah right! I had a problem with that and was told to build it anyway. Then I thought, this will be fun to prove how bad an idea that was. ...and bad it was. Turned a steel Hoffman enclosure into a ball and sent the latches through two 8 foot light fixtures embedding them into the sheet metal roof. The box was clamped down in a six inch Wilton vice. I was safely a hundred feet away in another building when I set it off. Loudest bang from an AB I ever heard. Funny how explosives work like that. Management makes great decisions with visual aids. The rest of the box was still on a shelf when I left in 05.

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Sounds to me like you didn't build a strong enough enclosure. :gee:

so anybody know what makes the red "airbag" light on dash come on? was out wheeling on saturday. took a couple of drops on the dropped control arm brackets, but nothing we couldn't drive out of.. noticed the light come on for a few minutes then go back off.

soyjer said:

Anyone still reading this?...I read that perhaps the '95 XJ airbag is differently triggered, but my '99 just has one yellow two wire connector attached to it...why wouldn't a person just disconnect that connector and tape it up, if they simply wanted to disable the airbag? If the ultimate goal is to then ALSO "trick" the XJ's PCM into thinking that the airbag is still connected, that is another story.

Click to expand...

you could do that, yes. In fact that is what I'd recommend...

Anak said:

'95 and '96 are mechanically triggered.

As I understand it there is a bolt that can be backed off in the top of the steering wheel and that will disable the airbag for servicing purposes.

Click to expand...

correct.

Greenz said:

I worked several years in the automobile industry. Part of my job duties included testing air bag deployment for QC and maintaining air bag testing equipment.

First off, don't mess with an air bag if you don't know what your doing. Used properly they can save your life (personal experience applies here). I cringe when I see videos of kids trying to sit on one and detonate outside a vehicle. Some (Takata recall) have been known to have metal particles fly off injuring even killing some folks.

Air bags are shipped from the manufacture to assembly plant safely because they are shipped with a shunt inside the connector. This shunt bridges the two wires that activate the detonator. Yes at the core of an air bag is an explosive device. The shunt prevents unintentional detonation even from static electricity. Once the air bag is plugged into the car side harness, it becomes active.

The tester we used, tested two parameters, Continuity and insulation breakdown. Insulation breakdown won't matter if your trying to remove it from the vehicle. As far as continuity, I don't remember the exact value but it was in the milliohm scale.

If it were me, I wouldn't mess with it.

Click to expand...

Same here. I have designed airbag control units professionally.

As I'm sure you noticed, there is a lot of ignorance displayed in the first page and a half of this thread. 95/96 airbags aren't the best (I know people who have had them go off offroad and didn't want them to) but in general, they should be left enabled while on pavement. Seriously. On the road they do not go off for no reason, if your airbag went off, your jeep's probably totaled anyways, and it'll likely save you some whiplash and possibly facial injuries. Worth "$1200" to me, and no one's paying that to fix their airbags now... you go to the junkyard and buy a clockspring, ACU, airbags, and maybe some dash parts for $100ish and bolt it in that evening.

But hey, if people want to break their faces intentionally through their own stubbornness and fear of technology, who am I to get in the way of that? I strongly believe that stupidity should be painful, and people deciding to disable their airbags even after being told it's a bad idea seems like a pretty good candidate for that.

Greenz said:

Great questions. I don't know. We were assembly so it had to pass tests to leave the plant. The air bag manufactures probably do the long term testing.



After several years of building thousands of seats with air bags, we had a small box of defective ABs. I was told to build an enclosure to "safely" detonate the cores one at a time. Yeah right! I had a problem with that and was told to build it anyway. Then I thought, this will be fun to prove how bad an idea that was. ...and bad it was. Turned a steel Hoffman enclosure into a ball and sent the latches through two 8 foot light fixtures embedding them into the sheet metal roof. The box was clamped down in a six inch Wilton vice. I was safely a hundred feet away in another building when I set it off. Loudest bang from an AB I ever heard. Funny how explosives work like that. Management makes great decisions with visual aids. The rest of the box was still on a shelf when I left in 05.

Click to expand...

That must have been entertaining. Hadn't management ever heard of a dumpster, 50 feet of cable, and a car battery? Could have sold tickets to fellow employees!

denverd1 said:

so anybody know what makes the red "airbag" light on dash come on? was out wheeling on saturday. took a couple of drops on the dropped control arm brackets, but nothing we couldn't drive out of.. noticed the light come on for a few minutes then go back off.

Click to expand...

almost certainly an airbag system fault - I'd have to check the FSM to be certain but it's probably cross about the shock being in the Z axis instead of the Y axis, or you might have an intermittent connection. Either way, as long as it goes back out, there's no permanent problem.

kastein said:

almost certainly an airbag system fault - I'd have to check the FSM to be certain but it's probably cross about the shock being in the Z axis instead of the Y axis, or you might have an intermittent connection. Either way, as long as it goes back out, there's no permanent problem.

Click to expand...

fair enough, thx!